Complete with a rather complicated summer, a certain need to escape the city and a lot of curiosity, in early August I found myself on the front lines at the Brooks Trail Camp: with a duffel bag full of technical clothing-from tank tops to thermal tops, you never know-and a relatively already tired pair of legs. A summary? Challenging but beautiful.
The Brooks Trail Camp was a zero edition, never organized by Brooks either in Italy or abroad. But it is clear that the U.S. brand wants to consolidate its name more and more in the world of trail running (just look at this year’s massive presence at LUT and UTMB) and with this camp it has done so in the best way possible. Naomi and Matthew were then fortunate enough to participate in the camp for free: in fact, their trail stories were selected by Brooks as the best, from the hundreds received.
A very competent and organized team, a coach(Michele Evangelisti) experienced and with a particular fondness for ultras, a location like Livigno that offers everything one could want for outdoor activities, a group of about fifteen participants carefully selected trying to achieve a certain homogeneity of prior experience, a photographer and a quick-footed videomaker.
This was not a camp for newbies to the sport and this in my opinion made the camp even more intense and interesting. As mentioned above, the participants were judiciously selected, even in their (our) differences all with a good training base. Michele then wanted to take us slowly out of our comfort zone, into that off-limits range that you wouldn’t go to on your own but realize you can handle, moving the bar of your limits a little higher. I’m not someone who is afraid of long distances, I can also achieve a good volume of weekly kilometers, but doing two daily workouts for almost four days in a row nipped me in the bud: and I was happy about it.
Day 01
Arrival of all participants at a spic and span. Those of us who didn’t hit traffic even make time to spend a half-hour in the hotel spa. Group brief to get to know each other, tell about our experiences in trail running and find out the detailed program of the camp. Do you prefer downhill or uphill? Existential question that sows panic. Distribution of useful technical materials for the following days. Dinner (on meals I will just say that I definitely ingested more calories than I consumed, and I consumed a lot). Chat and brief on the next day’s training.
Day 02
Morning workout: climb focus. About 17 km with 1,150 m of elevation gain, a fairly technical (including a couple of chains, which never hurts) and exposed trail. Lunch in Aquagranda – Livigno’s sports center par excellence – and small postprandial break.
Afternoon training: downhill focus. A loop of about 10 km and 600 m of elevation gain, mostly runnable, where we pause for almost an hour on a short technical section to delve into descent techniques (with and without poles). Dinner and gin and tonic, but memories are starting to get fuzzy. I think also a talk about how to behave when running at night, but I’d have to look back at all the stories to be sure.
Day 03
Morning workout: focus sticks. Another loop of about 16 km and 800 m of elevation gain, here we start with a detailed hour-long lesson on poles and possible techniques of use: on the Livigno bike path we make everyone envious. Then a nice wall of almost 600 m and finally off to loosen up the legs, but using poles with each type of slope.
Afternoon workout: strengthening. The run is negligible, just under 6 km, because the training is functional. This is where Michele demonstrates to everyone that my resistance on the plank is ridiculous, but the truth is that I could have already said so by avoiding the painful practical demonstration. It’s raining just the right amount, with this droughty summer we can’t even complain much. Dinner and a mild attempt to get a couple of hours of sleep because the day was almost over but not really over.
Day 04
Night training: focus sleep little and run a lot. It starts a handful of minutes after midnight for about 20 km and 1,000 m of elevation gain. The intensity of the camp is beginning to take its toll: we have a couple of defections and someone drops out halfway through. At 3,000 elevation the sleet is there for a brief punitive expedition, not sure I’ve digested the dinner schnitzel (at least one of the schnitzels). Back around 4:30, a little refreshment and three joyful hours of sleep because then at 8:00 we have more to look forward to.
Long workout: focus if you haven’t slept it’s your business. Here it is 40 km and 2,000 m of elevation gain, here all the knots come to a head. Workload, (lack of) rest, nutrition: all contribute to our performance on this day. For me definitely the most beautiful ride because in forty kilometers we have the opportunity to embrace most of the mountains around the city and to cross very different trails and landscapes. On the highest peak a freezing downpour reminds us that all the material we were carrying in our backpacks would come in handy. At Rifugio Forcola our very late lunch is cheered by Arianna who brings us far more sandwiches than we need, yet not a single one is left over. With a full stomach, you don’t want to miss the last 15 km of bombastic false floor? Finally, the story goes that someone – nearing the finish line – repeatedly climbed up and down the benches to fill in the dozen or so meters of elevation gain they lacked to reach 2,000. But there is no evidence to support these inferences.
We jump into the pool without even going through our rooms. The dinner that follows will be endless, someone will sleep leaning against the table.
Day 05
Morning workout: it’s not over until it’s over. We set off at 7:00 a.m. for about ten leg-melting kilometers in the village, to say goodbye and to remind ourselves that it wasn’t really over. Then when we get to the athletic track, we don’t let a triumphant lap pass us by. This is followed by a breakfast noteworthy for the number of proteins consumed.
Throughout the five days, of course, we had the opportunity to test all of Brooks’ trail running shoes-Catamount, Cascadia and the brand new Caldera-with specific advice on which model to use depending on the type of training. Finally, Leki provided us with poles for all outings (which explains the “how tall are you?” question on the camp registration form).
Here is a bit how it went: I realize that this summary cannot really restore the atmosphere of the camp, the fatigue and the joy, but I hope it can at least give you the idea. Huge thanks and hugs to Michele, Tobias, Federico, and Arianna. The only question left in my mind now is: when do we do it again?
